My adventure into bullet journaling

I just started with bullet journaling in late January 2018 and I have been watching many you tube videos and Pinterest items to learn how it's done.  I’ve used traditional calendar systems for years and usually discard it within a few days.  Here’s how I have been put my "Semi" Bullet Journal together.

I had a book from the hospitals' 100 anniversary and thought it would be a good place to start with - I put some dot painting on the cover to brighten it up.

I added a key just inside the front cover to help me with keeping track of the items that I would have in the journal.  Along with a small piece of my art "What do you want?"

To do (smal box)
Completed (check mark)
Migrated (arrow to the right)
Note (*)
Event(!)
Discard (cross out the item)


Monthly calendar:  While I appreciate the idea of writing out the monthly calendar, I know that I will never do that.  I found a monthly calendar on the computer and printed it.  It’s easy enough to cut out the month and tape it with double sided tape to my journal page.  I just couldn’t see the logic of reinventing the wheel.  The hard part was determining how many pages to leave for each month in my book so I haven’t taped them to the book.  Currently they are evenly spaced throughout the book.

Dividers: I found dividers with the month on them, cut them down to fit in my journal and taped the the calendars to the divider.  I am certain if I looked though the stores, I could have found mini dividers that would fit, maybe next year.   I have placed them evenly through the journal, but not attached them.  It makes it easy to move should I have an extra busy month and need extra pages.

Next Week Item:  Another portion of the on line tutorials that confused me was having a list for next week.  Then, when it is next week, you copy the list into your calendar - certainly not a time saver for me.  When it is an item for another month, I have taken to putting a sticky note on the divider for the appropriate month, or writing in pencil on the month divider things that need to be completed, and possibly a deadline, if there is one.

Much of my job has somewhat fluid deadlines.  If it’s an absolute deadline, I actually enter the event on my Outlook calendar with a reminder on the day, maybe a little before.  That way I’ll get an electronic reminder, and it’s in the bullet journal.

February had eight pages of "To Do" items.  While I realize that my journal looks more like a huge to do list, why waste the time making a daily, weekly or monthly calendar if I am not going to use these items?

I have taken to decorating my journal with small watercolor paintings of mine, washi tape and funny sticky notes.

I love colors markers and pens, fountain pens with great ink and all these items keep the journal fun and interesting.

There are many more things that I can do with this; track days that I am spending money or not spending money, working out, etc.  Pictures can be taped into the journal, samples of paint colors.  I added a "Wish List" and have been adding items I would like to get or do.